Home » Misc » How to check fake id in facebook

How to check fake id in facebook


How To Spot A Fake Facebook Account

How do you manage your Facebook friends? Do you keep your list really tight and only include ‘active’ pals? Or do you accept everyone you’ve ever laid eyes on? I’m probably somewhere in between. But… if I have never had a personal conversation with them and ‘eyeballed’ them in the flesh, then they don’t get a guernsey!

Over the last few weeks I have received a steady increase of friend requests from people who I just don’t know. My gut tells me that these are fake accounts. Why? I’ve never eyeballed them, they have few or no friends, and have very little personal information available to share on their profiles. I mentioned this to my 20-year-old son who informed me he gets about 10 a week!

And while it can be annoying being harassed by randoms – as my kids would say – the issue is far bigger than that. Fake Facebook accounts are usually designed by clever cyber crims who are trying to extract personal information from unsuspecting naive types – often kids. And why do they want our personal information? It allows them to put together a profile that they can use to apply for loans, mobile phone plans, etc – but we’ll get to that later.

How Big Is The Fake Account Issue?

In its latest reporting, Facebook nominated that it has a whopping 1.86 billion active monthly users. Now, in 2012 Facebook’ reporting stated that 8.7% of its accounts were either fake or duplicates. Even assuming the percentage has stayed about the same, that means there are now a monstrous 161 million fake Facebook accounts! So, it’s highly likely that you (and your kids) will have been affected.

How Can We Tell If A Facebook Account Is Fake?

Experts believe that fake accounts fall into two categories, being operated either by a bot (aka web robot) or by an ill-intentioned human. But irrespective of type, there are several warning signs that an account is fake. If the account in question displays three or more of these signs, then avoid it at all costs:

Beauty

Bots exploit beauty and often sport a pic of a gorgeously attractive girl or handsome guy on their pages. Why? We are only human – an enticing photo dramatically increases the chance of having a friend request accepted.

Not Many Pics

Bots tend not to post lots of photos. Their aim is to use minimum effort to create the illusion that a real person is behind the account so they don’t bother too much with fleshing out a personal life.

Weird Bio Information

If the biography information on the account seems fanciful or just plain unrealistic, then it’s likely not to be a legitimate account.

The Account Doesn’t Message

Bots can easily accept friend requests but can’t respond to messages. So, if you are unsure this is a great little test – just send a message and see what you get back!

Blank Wall

Blank walls are a dead giveaway for a fake account. If your possible ‘new friend’ has either no activity or just a few likes – then be suspicious!

Lots Of Likes

Some bot-controlled accounts are set up to like a certain amount of pages a day. Over time this can add up, so be wary!

Why Are Fake Facebook Accounts Created?

As mentioned earlier, cyber hackers create fake Facebook accounts with the aim of trying to friend people and get access to their personal information. Identity theft is their motivation. They can profit from this private information by personally taking out loans or credit cards in someone else’s name. Or – and this is more likely – they on-sell the information so others can do so.

But fake Facebook accounts can also be created just to make money. Buying and selling Facebook fans is a multi-million dollar business, as both companies and individuals pay big money to get fans and likes to their page. And with the software to create these fake Facebook pages costing no more than $200, you can see how easily profits can be made.

What To Do If You Are Sure A Facebook Account Is Fake

  1. Most importantly, do NOT follow or accept a friend request from the account.
  2. Report the account to Facebook by clicking the report option. When Facebook receives around 10-20 reports about a specific account they will investigate, so it’s worth doing.

Lastly, do NOT insist your kids delete their Facebook account because of the threat of fake accounts. Teaching our kids how to live online is probably one of our biggest jobs as parents of digital natives. Thinking critically, understanding risks, and learning how to navigate obstacles are skills that will hold them in good stead for their entire lives. Whoever thought discussing a face Facebook account could have so many benefits!

Take care.

Alex xx

Try McAfee Total Protection

Join 600+ million users who rely on McAfee Total Protection to stay safe online.

McAfee’s Cyber Safety Ambassador for Australia and New Zealand, Alex, is a mother of four boys who juggles family, work, home life, hobbies and her children’s ever growing social lives. ..

12 Ways to Identify a Fake Facebook Account

50 million

Facebook Accounts Are Fake

In effort to become a dominant social media platform, Facebook lost control of fake accounts, bots, and shared information. Most users have dealt with friend requests from an unknown accounts and been hacked. Eventhough Facebook is exploring ways to deal with these issues, fake Facebook accounts are getting smarter and more believable as real ones making it harder to catch. Leaving users on their own to decide if a Facebook account is fake or real. Let’s learn how to detect fake Facebook accounts and keep your account safe.

Get a Custom Facebook Ads Proposal Now

Discovering and Stopping Fake Facebook Accounts

According to Facebook, it estimates about 40-50 million accounts are fake. That is a lot! Here are the 12 ways to identify a fake facebook account:

  • Biggest Rule: Don’t talk to strangers online. If you do not know them or recognize the name then do not accept friend request.
  • An attractive photo (fake Facebook accounts often use attractive photos to entice people to befriend the account)
  • Profile picture looks like it came off the internet
  • Not very many pictures (often individual pictures and not with groups of people)
  • Biography information seems unrealistic
  • There are no wall posts on the Facebook page
  • Conversations on account seem fake and not real
  • Has the Facebook account been active for a short time or long time
  • The account likes too much on other accounts
  • Check if the account has friends (fake accounts will have none to very few friends)
  • Use Google Images to check photos and Google account name to see what comes up
  • Don’t be tricked by people vouching for the account. If there is one fake account then they all could be fake accounts to make them seem more legit

Also remember to not base your decision on mutual friends. Remember, that fake accounts can connect with your friends as well as you. If you are unsure about an account, a good way to catch the fake account is by either messaging your friend or the account before accepting. If you message your mutual friend, ask if they have ever met the person on that account. If you message the unknown account, ask them how they know you and how did you meet. Many fake Facebook accounts will not respond.

What to do with a Fake Facebook Account

You have caught a fake Facebook account, now what do you do? If you believe an account is fake then report it to Facebook. (This can be done by going to the profile and clicking on the three dots on the right side of the cover photo.) Every Facebook account reported benefits everyone as that one account was probably looking to hack more than one user. Keep in mind, Facebook is built to add users fast so they struggle taking down accounts. So it helps if we chip in by reporting fake Facebook accounts.

Facebook is built to add users fast so they struggle taking down accounts. So it helps if we chip in by reporting fake Facebook accounts.

We hope these tips will help you stay away from fake Facebook accounts and keep your personal information safe. If you are looking for more articles on social media, you may enjoy these other ones: How to Get Verified on Twitter and How to Create a YouTube Channel. Also feel free to reach out to us if you need assistance with social media management.

FACEBOOK ADS INTAKE FORM

Please fill out as much information below as possible based upon your expected Facebook campaign requirements. These can include account management, content creation, organic posting, paid ads, and strategic consulting.

Contact Information

Advertising Services Requested (Please Check All That Apply)

AmazonBingFacebookGoogleInstagramLinkedInPandoraTwitterYelpYouTube
SearchDisplayAudioVideo

Start & End Date of Ad Campaign

Campaign Details(s)

Please leave this field empty.

Jinsey Cox, Content Marketing Specialist

Jinsey Cox is a Content Marketing Specialist at SunCity Advising. With a background in copywriting and art, Jinsey creates unique content for clients that drives engagement and leads. SunCity Advising specializes in developing high performing websites, including services in SEO, paid media advertising, social media, email marketing and other digital marketing solutions.

Our Promise

We provide every client with a hands-on account manager that takes ownership in, and is held accountable for, the successful results of your growth strategy!

The SunCity Advising marketing team is much more than a digital marketing company — reach out to see why our clients trust our firm with all of their tough digital marketing decisions.

Contact Us

Address:
SunCity Advising
7924 Ivanhoe Ave. Suite 1
La Jolla, CA 92037

Marketing Contact:
Ivan Reed
(858) 859-0123
info@suncityadvising. com

Open Hours

Monday: 8:00am-8:00pm PST
Tuesday: 8:00am-8:00pm PST
Wednesday: 8:00am-8:00pm PST
Thursday: 8:00am-8:00pm PST
Friday: 8:00am-8:00pm PST
Saturday: 8:00am-4:00pm PST
Sunday: 12:00pm-4:00pm PST

SERVICES

How to spot a fake social media account?

In social networks, quite often you can find spam messages: “Do you want to earn a lot of money today?”, “Do you want to lose weight without getting up from the couch?” and many other appeals that promise people everything at once.

Usually such mailing is done from fake accounts. Such "users" must be identified and removed from them in time, since an attempt to communicate with them can lead to the loss of personal time, as well as really important information. This article will talk about how you can detect a fake account on such popular social networks as Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Instagram.

  • How to spot a fake Facebook account?
  • How to detect a fake VKontakte account?
  • How to detect a fake account in the Odnoklassniki social network?
  • How to spot a fake Instagram account?

There are no automated ways to find fake accounts on the Facebook social network, so you will have to manually identify fake users. The first step is to check the main photo posted on the user page. To do this, just do the following:

  1. Go to the page of the verified user.
  2. Right-click on a person's photo and select "Find this image in Yandex" from the context menu.
  4. Get acquainted with the results that the search engine will provide.

As you can see in the example above, we have a well-known resident of the Comedy Club project, and it is unlikely that he would write personal messages to anyone advertising goods or offering to buy a unique simulator that increases muscle mass in a matter of days. Therefore, if someone writes from such an account, then there is a huge probability that this is done by a fake user.

You should also be suspicious of all Facebook profiles with the main photos of a model appearance and those accounts that were created very recently (the Timeline application will help you find out the date of registration of your Facebook account).

In the social network VKontakte, determining the age of a user's page is also an indirect way to determine whether it is fake or not. This is done by identifying a unique user ID.

You can find a unique identifier (ID) by going to the user's page and looking at the address bar of the browser. Based on this information, you can determine the approximate date the account was created. For example, if the user ID has a value in the region of 100000000, this indicates that he opened an account in 2020. In the example above, the user ID is 300905727, indicating that the page was created fairly recently.

Next, you need to check the user's activity on his own VKontakte page. A real user in the album will always have a couple of personal photos added at different times. In addition, a real person reposts a wide variety of entries on different days, adds audio recordings and videos. The number of friends a real VKontakte user has varies from 20 to 500 people, but there are exceptions. If the number of friends of a suspicious user goes into the thousands, then most likely they are all cheated.

The Odnoklassniki social network is considered to be a platform for adults of sufficient age (those over 30), so fake accounts are especially common here. Usually they are created by people who want to try on someone else's image, chat with their friends under an assumed name, advertise something without obviously damaging their own reputation.

In principle, checking an account in the Odnoklassniki social network for authenticity is carried out in much the same way as in other social networks: you need to check the presence of the main photo of the account on the Internet, look at the date of registration in the system, as well as the quality of filling in the user profile.

If a copy of the personal page of a real person was found on the Odnoklassniki social network, you can file a complaint against the author of the "fake". To do this, you will need to go to his profile, select the “Other actions” item in the menu and click on the “Complain” button, while indicating registration under a false name and surname as the reason for filing a complaint.

To identify a fake Instagram page, follow the steps below:

  1. Check user photos: fake accounts often post photos of beautiful people in sexual or simply attractive poses, in order to maximize the attention of other users (photos in the family circle fake accounts usually don't).
  2. View photo upload dates - fake users post all their photos on the same day, and often even the same minute.
  3. The feed of fake accounts is spammed with various posts that do not carry any significant semantic load.
  4. Fake rarely responds to comments, as well as to the description of published photos.

A special case is fake accounts maintained by specially trained programs (bots). They are scrupulous about filling in all the data and are always active on the page entrusted to them. It is possible to calculate such fakes only when communicating in personal correspondence.

Summing up, it can be said that it is quite easy to identify fake accounts in social networks, but for this you need to follow at least elementary precautionary rules. You should never enter into an active dialogue with unfamiliar users, and even more so, accept any files from them or follow the links provided by them. And if you find a fake account, you must immediately report it to the administration of the social network through the form for sending a complaint or feedback.

NChNatalya Chernikovaauthor

Facebook requires ID. What to do?

Why does Facebook require a passport, an identity card?

Facebook usually requires a passport or other ID after your page has been blocked for some reason. If you failed to restore access in the usual way via mail or via SMS to your mobile phone, then you need to prove in some other way that you are you. For this, you need an identity card. Imagine for a moment that some scammer wanted to hack your page and told Facebook: “I am that person, let me on the page.” Is it possible to just give it to a stranger? Therefore, if you value your page and you need to restore it, treat this requirement with understanding.

The message you received might look like this:

We cannot provide you with further assistance until we receive an ID that we accept that matches the information in your account. The decision is final. In the meantime, this account will remain blocked as a precautionary measure. While an account is suspended, it will not appear on Facebook or appear in search results.

What kind of ID does Facebook accept?

First option: any government-issued ID - passport, driver's license, birth certificate, marriage certificate, insurance policy (personal or automobile), name change document, disability certificate, and others. The document must contain the name and date of birth or the name and photo.

Second option: two different documents with your name on them. One of them should contain a photo or date of birth, like on your Facebook page. The following documents are accepted: letters, travel, student, library card, payment receipt, certificate, medical card, bank statement, certificate from work or study, pension certificate and other suitable ones.

Third option, if there is no document with your real name and photo or date of birth: two documents from the second option with your real name and one ID card with date of birth or photo that matches the information on your Facebook page. This identity can be from the lists in the first or second options.

What will Facebook do with my ID?

Facebook guarantees confidentiality. Information from the certificate is not transferred anywhere and is kept closed from unauthorized persons while your issue is being resolved (no more than 30 days, then deleted).

If you think that Facebook does not have the right to demand your identity and you know exactly which law forbids it, write about it in the comments below.

Sending an ID to Facebook

How do I send an ID to Facebook?

  1. Take your ID and cover up any information you consider secret (for example, your passport number or your address).
  2. Scan or take a close-up photo of an ID card so that the text is in focus (when taking a picture with your phone, press your finger on the screen where the text of the document is visible to focus).
  3. Check that the name, date of birth, your photo is clearly visible on the photo or on the scan.
  4. Save the file on your computer.
  5. Return to the Facebook contact form, click "Upload" , find and select the identity file.

What if Facebook says "Something went wrong, we're working on it" when I submit my ID?

Tips for solving "Something went wrong" when sending a photo or ID scan:

  1. Make sure you don't confuse anything, that you are sending the right file, and that it is an image file (for example, in JPG, JPEG, TIFF, PNG format).
  2. Make sure the file is not too big. Within 1-2 megabytes - it's normal, if more - it's better to reduce (lower the quality) and try to send again.
  3. Try clearing your browser's cache (temporary files) or installing a newer browser.
  4. Try to do everything from another computer.
  5. Wait until tomorrow and try again - maybe Facebook will be fixed by this time.

What if I can't send my ID or don't want to?

Then restore access via email or phone. And if this is not possible, then we again return to the identity card - apparently, we still have to send it, there is no other way. Do not rush to register a new page, it is better to restore the old one.

What if I have a fake name (nickname, nickname) on my page?

According to the rules of Facebook, it is required to indicate the first and last name that a person uses in everyday life. Remember your registration on Facebook: if you do not agree with the rules, you cannot register. And if you don't like this rule, just don't use Facebook. But there you can add your nickname (nickname, nickname), maiden name. This is done in the profile in section "Information about you" - link "Add nickname, birth name ...".

Advice for the future

Check your Facebook settings:

  • Provide an alternate email address for a fallback.
  • Make sure that you have access to the email addresses you provided on Facebook (and that no one else has access to them).
  • If you don't have a mobile phone number, be sure to include it. Strangers will not recognize him, but with the help of SMS, it will be possible to restore access at any time.
  • Your real name and date of birth must be indicated on the page, this also makes it easier to restore access.
  • Use the secure start page Vhod.ru to log in to Facebook.

* The social networks Instagram and Facebook are owned by the company Meta, which is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization, and its activities are prohibited.

Learn more